US
FACT CHECK: Viral Image Falsely Attributes Quote About Rape To Donald Trump Jr
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An image shared on Facebook claims Donald Trump Jr. once said, “My father doesn’t need to rape women. It’s more likely a woman would rape him. That’s how popular he is.”
Facebook/Screenshot
Verdict: False
There is no record of Trump Jr. making the statement.
Fact Check:
The image includes a picture of President Donald Trump’s eldest son, paired with the quote Trump Jr. allegedly said about his father earlier this month. There is, however, no evidence the quote is authentic.
While the post claims Trump Jr. made the comment during Fox News host Sean Hannity’s radio program “The Sean Hannity Show” on Oct. 14, that is not the case. Hannity’s guest that day was Republican Georgia Sen. David Perdue, not Trump Jr., a review of the episode by the Daily Caller News Foundation found.
The DCNF also searched Trump’s verified Twitter account, @DonaldJTrumpJr, and ProPublica’s archive of his deleted tweets, finding no record of the comment. A statement to that effect would also likely prompt media coverage, but there does not appear to be any.
A spokesperson for the Trump campaign confirmed in an email to the DCNF that the quote is fake.
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